I am on spring-break now at the National University of Singapore, so I, Gabi, Loic and Rahel took a flight to Philippines for a week and now we are in Legaspi. The end of monsoon season is not very travel-friendly so instead of the expected sun we are flooded with ton of rain. Last Saturday we took a 14-hour bus ride to Legaspi from the capital Manila.
Next morning, after hiring a mountain guide from our new friend Richard (from Royal Quest Tours) attempted to climb Mt. Mayon (still active, most perfectly-shaped volcano), but heavy rains prevented us from reaching the top (or as close as dept. of tourism allows).
It was a very dangerous climb and at one point we were standing on the edge of a long waterfall, that rattles down the mountain like a big snake with a wet & shinny volcanic rock "skin", and waited for the rain to subside because the amount of water falling has probably quadrupled in a matter of 10 minutes. Shivering and holding on to branches of trees and grass we waited out the rain and humbly began our descend. Including a couple of bruises and grass-cuts we made it down safely, but Mt. Mayon showed that HE, not US... mere mortals, decides who goes up and who doesn't.
2400m high, Mayon stands tall and unconquered by the 4 students from NUS.
The weather sucks that's why I am not chilling on the beautiful beach but sit here writing my blog in the Internet cafe (15 pesos/hour = 30c US).
Out.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Batam Island (Chinese New Year Weekend)
So the weekend started early :) - Wednesday night. Went to city for Chinese new year and checked out the scene in Chinatown. Sat around a huge screen watching a concert that was happening live right behind us but because the streets were closed off we were too lazy to make a big circle around town to get to the stage.
Then we went to Ministry of Sound club (aka MoS). "Studio 54" on the 2nd floor was tons of dancing and fun.
Next morning (Thursday) early wake up and going to Waterfront to catch our 9am ferry to Batam Island (about 40 mins away from S'pore).
We had a resort booked for 10 ppl and so after a shady process of "visa on arrival" we were picked up from the ferry terminal and taken to resort (2 mins away) via shuttle.
Holiday Inn Batam is a beautiful resort with all the necessary things you can imagine... saunas, spas, huge pool, restaurant, bar, etc...even a waterslide yeeeey! ..ahm.. its only a bit in the middle of nowhere. There was another resort nearby called Harris. There was a cable wakeboarding, as well as go-carts. We did both. Actually we only had about 30 mins for wakeboarding because we arrived at 5:30pm and they were closing at 6, but we did get a chance to try it out. It was hard but I was able to get on water couple of times. Afterwords a local worker asked if we wanted to jump into the water from the cable tower. The obvious answer was YES. Thrilled and scared I climbed up and jumped from about 6m high tower.
Staying in the resort was fun and relaxing, but we really wanted to see the "real" Batam so with the help of our buddy Mukti (guy in charge of activities at the resort) we took two cabs to the city on Saturday afternoon. In Nagoya (center of Batam) we went to a massage place and a few of us received a reflexology (foot massage) for about S$9. really cheap compared to the S$80 or 90 at the resort. Then we went for dinner and finally arrived in NoName Cafe - really nice bar with live music. There was a band from Jakarta performing. Just good live music and very good pub ambiance. The place was decorated as if you were under the trees, so you can see structures that represent roots of a tree, kind of a darker "Alice in the Wonderland" atmosphere.
Sunday we headed back to Singapore. Again the stricking difference in the way things are organized here... order and structure stands out. It is actually nice when you come back from a more chaotic place because you know that here (S'pore) everything will go as expected, the bus, the taxi driver, the server at the restaurant will just perform their function in the society and thus make your life easier. Comforting, but when 'consumed in excess' becomes annoying. I guess we as people need some chaos in our lives.
Then we went to Ministry of Sound club (aka MoS). "Studio 54" on the 2nd floor was tons of dancing and fun.
Next morning (Thursday) early wake up and going to Waterfront to catch our 9am ferry to Batam Island (about 40 mins away from S'pore).
We had a resort booked for 10 ppl and so after a shady process of "visa on arrival" we were picked up from the ferry terminal and taken to resort (2 mins away) via shuttle.
Holiday Inn Batam is a beautiful resort with all the necessary things you can imagine... saunas, spas, huge pool, restaurant, bar, etc...even a waterslide yeeeey! ..ahm.. its only a bit in the middle of nowhere. There was another resort nearby called Harris. There was a cable wakeboarding, as well as go-carts. We did both. Actually we only had about 30 mins for wakeboarding because we arrived at 5:30pm and they were closing at 6, but we did get a chance to try it out. It was hard but I was able to get on water couple of times. Afterwords a local worker asked if we wanted to jump into the water from the cable tower. The obvious answer was YES. Thrilled and scared I climbed up and jumped from about 6m high tower.
Staying in the resort was fun and relaxing, but we really wanted to see the "real" Batam so with the help of our buddy Mukti (guy in charge of activities at the resort) we took two cabs to the city on Saturday afternoon. In Nagoya (center of Batam) we went to a massage place and a few of us received a reflexology (foot massage) for about S$9. really cheap compared to the S$80 or 90 at the resort. Then we went for dinner and finally arrived in NoName Cafe - really nice bar with live music. There was a band from Jakarta performing. Just good live music and very good pub ambiance. The place was decorated as if you were under the trees, so you can see structures that represent roots of a tree, kind of a darker "Alice in the Wonderland" atmosphere.
Sunday we headed back to Singapore. Again the stricking difference in the way things are organized here... order and structure stands out. It is actually nice when you come back from a more chaotic place because you know that here (S'pore) everything will go as expected, the bus, the taxi driver, the server at the restaurant will just perform their function in the society and thus make your life easier. Comforting, but when 'consumed in excess' becomes annoying. I guess we as people need some chaos in our lives.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Article about Malacca/Melaka
I simply have to share this... Today while surfing net for our recess week travels I found this article on National Geographic. I wish I would have read this before the weekend trip to Melaka. I believe it would have given me a different feel for Melaka. Author writes about Malacca Straights and Batam (the island we're going to this weekend - Chinese New Years Weekend). Maybe we'll go to one of the places mentioned in the article, where the pirates shoot pool and plan their next "happy happy".
Article is great and supplementary materials (field notes, photos) are really awesome.
Article is great and supplementary materials (field notes, photos) are really awesome.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Bike Quest Update
So the race went very well. We have completed two areas West and Central that included about 16 checkpoints spread around Singapore, at which we had to solve puzzles and play games to complete the area checkpoints and receive clues about the next area.
The race attracted a total of 58 teams (4 members each) and started at around 10pm and ended at 6am. We crossed finish line at 6:05am but did not get penalized because at one point during the race my bike broke down so we had to wait for about 20 mins to have another bike delivered to us by the organizers. I still don't know the final rankings but we will know soon.
Overall it was a challenging task and required some effort, especially the final few kilometers. When joining our team Rahel was afraid that she might not be able to keep up with three guys, and in the end she was the second to cross the finish line! Amazing effort!
This is the summary of the route we took:
3 winning teams were all professional biking teams and had about 200 points more than we did. We had 730 points, 3rd place winner had 930 and first place had 1015.
All of us were exhausted after the race so while we waited for the scores and announcement of the winners I jumped into the ocean at the East Coast Park (Very refreshing!) and in the meantime the sun came up.
I am very happy that I was able to compete in Bike Quest 2008 and if there will be a chance to do it again, I AM IN!
Because I did not select a team name when registering for the event, the organizers used my name for the team name, thus my lithuanian soccer shirt worked very well with our "team name" Karolis on the back :)
The race attracted a total of 58 teams (4 members each) and started at around 10pm and ended at 6am. We crossed finish line at 6:05am but did not get penalized because at one point during the race my bike broke down so we had to wait for about 20 mins to have another bike delivered to us by the organizers. I still don't know the final rankings but we will know soon.
Overall it was a challenging task and required some effort, especially the final few kilometers. When joining our team Rahel was afraid that she might not be able to keep up with three guys, and in the end she was the second to cross the finish line! Amazing effort!
This is the summary of the route we took:
3 winning teams were all professional biking teams and had about 200 points more than we did. We had 730 points, 3rd place winner had 930 and first place had 1015.All of us were exhausted after the race so while we waited for the scores and announcement of the winners I jumped into the ocean at the East Coast Park (Very refreshing!) and in the meantime the sun came up.
I am very happy that I was able to compete in Bike Quest 2008 and if there will be a chance to do it again, I AM IN!
Because I did not select a team name when registering for the event, the organizers used my name for the team name, thus my lithuanian soccer shirt worked very well with our "team name" Karolis on the back :)
Saturday, February 2, 2008
BikeQuest 2008 - Cycledelic
In about half an hour I am meeting my teammates Manas, Toby and Rahel to make our trip to the East Coast Park (Haven't been there yet) and at 9:30PM tonight, Saturday, the 2nd of February 2008 we will compete in a night bike competition/event Bike Quest 2008 - Cycledelic. The race will take place during the night hours so tentatively it should end around 5-6am tomorrow. Along with 40-some other teams we will have a task to solve puzzles in order to find hints on where the next check-point is located, equipped with only a map and a bottle of water we will rush with our bikes to that location (bikes are rented to us by the organizers).
There are two groups, leisure and competitive, so being ambitious group of amateur bikers we enter the COMPETITIVE group:) There will be some sweet prizes for the 3 teams who will find the most checkpoints around Singapore! (around 20 checkpoints total)
Look forward to the challenge and will update on the results tomorrow!
GO TEAM!
There are two groups, leisure and competitive, so being ambitious group of amateur bikers we enter the COMPETITIVE group:) There will be some sweet prizes for the 3 teams who will find the most checkpoints around Singapore! (around 20 checkpoints total)
Look forward to the challenge and will update on the results tomorrow!
GO TEAM!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Gimtadienis = Birthday
Bega metai, bega dienos:) Stai ir dar vienas gimtadienis. Sis sutiktas su naujais draugais Singapure. Vakar (30d) sventeme klube o siandien bare buvom.
So today (the day that ended 3 hours ago) was my 23rd b-day. Even though I am far away from my close friends and family, I had a great day today. It was really great to have very nice people around me to go out to St. James club complex yesterday and to the famous (or is it infamous) Wala Wala bar for some live music tonight.
Also got two amazing gifts today. Ramona sent the most wonderful powerpoint presentation made specially for my birthday:) Rahel brough a beautifully wrapped piece of cake and also gave a friendship band (the thing that is tied around wrist).
It's the little things that mean the most. Also many people congratulated me today and I am very thankful to all of them.
Esp the crowd I hanged with yesterday and today, so Ran, Rahel, Johannes, Tobias, Thomas, Manas, Gabi, Loic, Aleks, Charles, and others.
update: 02.02.2008 Ran (Welcoming Buddy) txted me yesterday that she needs to pass something to me so we met up to have lunch and she gave me a beautifully giftwrapped webcam!! Can she be any sweeter? I looked around the stores after I arrived and didn't buy a webcam cause it was very expensive, a luxury:P So thank you Ran, you're the best welcoming buddy in the world!
I have been slow about updating my blog but I promise to take more time and write a bit about my Singapore experience. I have learned quite a few interesting things about this country, and the people that live here. Still lots to see and learn though:)
Goodnight!
So today (the day that ended 3 hours ago) was my 23rd b-day. Even though I am far away from my close friends and family, I had a great day today. It was really great to have very nice people around me to go out to St. James club complex yesterday and to the famous (or is it infamous) Wala Wala bar for some live music tonight.
Also got two amazing gifts today. Ramona sent the most wonderful powerpoint presentation made specially for my birthday:) Rahel brough a beautifully wrapped piece of cake and also gave a friendship band (the thing that is tied around wrist).
It's the little things that mean the most. Also many people congratulated me today and I am very thankful to all of them.
Esp the crowd I hanged with yesterday and today, so Ran, Rahel, Johannes, Tobias, Thomas, Manas, Gabi, Loic, Aleks, Charles, and others.
update: 02.02.2008 Ran (Welcoming Buddy) txted me yesterday that she needs to pass something to me so we met up to have lunch and she gave me a beautifully giftwrapped webcam!! Can she be any sweeter? I looked around the stores after I arrived and didn't buy a webcam cause it was very expensive, a luxury:P So thank you Ran, you're the best welcoming buddy in the world!
I have been slow about updating my blog but I promise to take more time and write a bit about my Singapore experience. I have learned quite a few interesting things about this country, and the people that live here. Still lots to see and learn though:)
Goodnight!
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